Verse Of The Week: No power in the sky above or in the earth below- indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us fron the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord ~Romans 8:39

﻿In the midst of all the Christams craziness I decided to do a 2 week exercise boot camp. I really want to get back into shape! It was challenge, becasue I am soooo out of shape, but I loved it. On the last day we were doing squats and I sprained my ankle and knee. The Doctor has ordered me to stay off it as much as possible. He also prescribed some pain medicine, which makes me sleepy. . If I'm on that leg at all my knee starts hurting really bad. I can sit on the couch with it propped up and it feels fine (finally). And the good thing is it isn't the leg I use when pushing the sewing pedal so I am still able to sew. YEAH!!! Sewing
has been kind slow going aound here lately, but now that I'm feeling somewhat better I'm starting to get back into the sewing groove. :O)

A family at my church is taking care of a baby boy that was in need of a home. He is a sweet little boy and that family love him as if he was their own. I heard that they were looking for a taggie blanket, but hadn't bought one yet due to the $20 price tag. When I found out I went home and whipped one up for them! And of course I took pictures of the process. So now you can make one too.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

2 coordinating fabrics (I chose flannel and minky dot)

5 coordinating ribbons (I used grosgrain and satin)

Scissors

Sewing machine

Cut your fabric into 12" x 12" squares.

Cut 4 strips of each ribbon 3" long.

Grab a strip of ribbon and fold it in half. Pin one of each color ribbon to each side of one of the fabric squares.

Using the longest stitch length baste the ribbons to the fabric.

This is how it will look.

Lay the 2nd fabric on top of the ribbon fabric. Make sure right side are together.

Sew using a 1/4" seam allowance.

Make sure to leave a 2"-3" opening for turning right side out.

Turn right side out and topstitch 1/4" from the edge.

*** TIP- If you are using minky dot fabic . DO NOT iron after turning right side out. It will make the dots go away. Instead finger press as you top stitch. Also when you are topstitching make sure to have the minky dot fabic on top because the feed dogs will leave tracks in that fabric ***

﻿Wow!!!! It has been crazy busy around here all month!!!
We are very involved in our church and this is one of the busiest months in a church. We have had many services. My favorite is the Candlelight Communion service. I always look forward to it every year.

I also had to finish up Christmas presents. I made quilts for the kids. I didn't have enough time to make Scott's for Christmas, but I'm starting on it as soon as I get Aiyanna some pajamas made (she is growing like a weed!)

I made Dakota a jeans quilt I blogged about HERE. All I had left to do was sew the binding on and it was finished.

He loves it! I've made him a blanket for Christmas every year since he was born.

It is reversible! The top and back are both made with jeans and it has a cotton batting in between.

It is very heavy and will definately keep him warm on cold nights for years to come.

For Aiyanna's quilt I wanted to make something girlie and cozy. I also made a matching quilt for her ckerboard chebaby doll. I didn't have much time to make her quilt. So I choose to do a Checkerboard with polkadots and stripes and then added to wide borders. The back has a super soft flannel.

Now that i﻿t's cold here I was in need of some gloves. I cannot stand for my hands to be cold! I knew we had a few parades coming up where we would be handing out tickets. That would be tricky to do with gloves on. So I thought fingerless gloves would be the way to go. Since they were Christmas parades I wanted something festive, but didn't want to have to buy anything. So I raided my sock drawer and found a pair of Christams toe socks hiding in the back corner.

They were very cute a practically brand new. I wore them for a little while the day they were given to me. They were tossed into the sock drawer and left there ever since. I don't like toe socks. I cannot stand all that stuff between my toes....it drives me CRAZY!!!

Can you believe this little boy has been the buzz of our church this past week?

I am soooo proud of him!!!

Our church does something called DreamFest each month.. A girl at church asked me if the kids had toys they don't play with anymore that I could donate for the kids. So a couple Mondays ago I sat down with the kids and told them about some children who didn't have many or any toys. I told them that their Mommies and Daddies who don't have money to buy Christmas presents for those children.I told them we could help make those children (and their parents) happy by sharing some of their toys. I asked if they would like to go through their toy box and pick out some toys to give to these children. They both said yes. So I told them after nap we would pick out some toys to share. They went to sleep and Dakota woke up first. When he got up first thing he said is can we go get our toys to share. I told him after Aiyanna woke up we would. They share a room and she was still sleeping. He asked me at least 20 times before she woke up. I was really surprised that he was so excited to do this. After Aiyanna woke up we went to the toy box and started going through it. He would tell me if he wanted to share it or keep it. They donated 2 trash bags and a diaper box of toys. I was so proud of them!!!

(Can you believe I didn't get any, not even one, pictures of all the toys we that were donated)

Here are a few children playing with some of the toys.

That's not the end of the story though. Later that evening while we were eating dinner he started asking me questions. Do they look like me? Are they big? Are they boys or girls? So I asked him if he would like to go and meet these children and help give out the toys he is going to share. He said yes so we went and volunteered. He was so great showing the kids how to work some of the toys and talking to them. When we left he asked if we could help with DreamFest again. We will now be volunteering every month

Word got out that this 4 year old boy was sooo excited to share his toys and drove his Mommy crazy waiting to go through his toy box. It spread around the church so quicky. Everyone was talking about it. I didn't even realize that until we were at Dream Fest. A member of the church came over to us and he started talking to Dakota. He told him that everyone was talking about him and how he was so excited to share his toys with children less fortunate then he was. Dakota just said "really". Like what's the big deal. I know he has made me realize what the Spirit of Giving means. He didn't do it because he had to. He did it because he wanted to!!! Because he wanted other boys and girls to have toys to play with. He was happy to see them pick out toys he brought for them.

He has reminded me and many others what it means to be a cheerful giver!

When we were asked if we could donate toys I had heard of DreamFest but never really knew what it was.

It is so amazing!!!

The church buys food and has it trucked to the Atlantic Beach Community Center in South Carolina.

They give this food out free of charge to anyone who comes. No questions asked!

Each person/family gets a number. when their number is called they get a buggy and walk through with a volunteer and are given food. I was told it's enough to last a month.

There are also two beauticians that volunteer their time to give free hair cuts to anyone who wants one.

They have nurses there that will check your blood pressure.

They also have activities for kids. This month they put on a play of the Christmas Story, gave out bags with a few goodies in them, and then let each child pick out a donated toy.

We had a great time helping out. I am really excited that we will get to spend one Saturday a month as a family helping others and showing them God's love!